How Far is the Metaverse From us?

It is a virtual world between illusion and reality, based on reality and outside of reality, and is a spiritual support for people.

The year 2021 is called the year of “metaverse”.
From Zuckerberg’s announcement that “we will be meta-universe first, not Facebook first”, to the star giants of various countries coming down to buy land and NFT …… in the meta-universe, to the explosion of blockchain games, which is called the entrance of meta-universe applications in early 2022, many people think that “meta-universe is really coming! Many people think that “the meta-universe is really coming!”

The meta-universe flames out in 2022
In 2021, the most criticized problem of the new concept of metaverse is that it is suspended in the air and difficult to be landed in practical application scenarios. By 2022, this situation has finally been improved. But in this way, new challenges have emerged — The once-popular VR/AR competitions are no longer popular, and giants like Meta have also been brutally beaten by the market.

IDC report released at the end of the year pointed out that the global VR/AR headset device shipments in 2022 was only 9.7 million units, a 12.8% year-on-year plunge. Although IDC expects the shipments of VR/AR headsets to return to positive growth in 2023, I’m afraid it’s not realistic to reach the growth rate of 2021.

We must admit that the former hottest meta-universe windfall in 2022 have flame out phenomenon.

The facts show that the meta-universe is not enough to rely on the virtual, digital world alone. Ecological infrastructure and technological maturity are the key indicators for the metaverse to move towards the ground.

So, how far away is the meta-universe from us in terms of technology?

Unlike the eight technologies of the Internet, the metaverse needs a much broader coverage of technologies, even involving the mysteries of the human body itself. For now, the metaverse needs technologies such as AR, VR, MR, XR, human-computer interaction, computer vision, AI, 3D, cloud, big data, blockchain, digital twin, edge and cloud computing, 5G/6G, and most importantly, neuronal interaction, and it also needs these High-tech infrastructure and devices, including universal Internet, high-speed broadband and mobile communication devices, giant servers, and wearable devices, are needed. The development, industrialization, and application of these technologies and facilities will take time.

We expand on these technologies in detail to say.
1、Network and computing technology：
The metaverse requires users to log in with any device and immerse themselves in it anytime and anywhere, requiring real-time monitoring of data and a large number of calculations, and it is difficult for a single or a few servers to support the huge amount of computing in the metaverse.

Cloud computing, as a kind of distributed computing, is expected to support a large number of users online at the same time with its powerful computing capacity, and will probably serve as the prototype of the metaverse, but it is undeniable that the current cloud computing technology is still unable to meet the computing volume and speed required by the metaverse.

2、The “meta-universe” of interactive technologies:
Expanded Reality includes VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and MR (Fusion Reality).

VR provides an immersive experience by fully taking over human vision, hearing, touch and motion capture to achieve information input and output in the metaverse.

AR, on the other hand, adds a layer of virtual information on top of retaining the real world.

MR can achieve partial retention and free switching between virtual and real by projecting light fields to the retina. Brain-computer interface technology to achieve perceptual experiences such as smell and taste, and robots become another channel to connect to the meta-universe through physical simulation of the flesh, while interacting freely with the virtual world to enhance the true experience and immersion.

3、The technology to build the virtual world of “metaverse” — artificial intelligence (AI)：
AI provides support for metaverse application scenarios: the development of computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing and intelligent speech provides a combination of reality and reality for the metaverse, making it diverse and immersive.

AI supports content production and intelligently generates non-repetitive mass content to realize the spontaneous organic growth of the metaverse.

AI-driven virtual digital people present the content of the metaverse to users in an organized manner.

AI-led content censorship, censoring the massive content in the metaverse that cannot be done manually to ensure the safety and legality of the metaverse.

4、The blueprint of the world of “metaverse” — digital twin：
Digital twin is to establish a dynamic twin of real things in virtual space. With the help of sensors, the operating status of the main body and external environmental data can be mapped to the twin in real time.

5、Blockchain, the authentication mechanism of “metaverse”：
Blockchain technology makes it possible to attribute, circulate, realize and authenticate the virtual identity of the metaverse through smart contracts. It has the advantages of stability, efficiency, rule transparency and certainty.

6、Storage technology of “metaverse”.
The metaverse will be built on a decentralized distributed storage infrastructure that is not controlled by any one individual or institution.

How far is the metaverse from us?
Through the above technical analysis, it is easy to see that the metaverse is a huge system project that is far more complex than the Internet. Now, it is widely believed in the industry that it will take at least 10 years for the metaverse to be built and realized, and 20 to 30 years to mature.

Of course, these are all ideal predictions now. As for the actual development, it needs to be observed and predicted later. Judging from the 60-year development history of the Internet and the 33-year development history of the World Wide Web, we should be happy to see the meta-universe, which is just “stumbling” in 2021, but we should also be prepared to deal with various difficulties and challenges.

WEB3.0 ecology is one of the infrastructures of the metaverse
The primary problem to be solved by the metaverse is infrastructure! The perfection of decentralized distributed storage is a prerequisite for building the metaverse! Building a new business ecology with decentralized distributed storage has become one of the most critical infrastructures of the third-generation Internet “metaverse” of Web 3.0.

The “metaverse” can make the real world a better place and empower the next generation Internet for the real economy. It is not only a new space for the digital world, but also a strong interaction and deep integration between the digital world and the real world, so as to promote social and economic progress to a higher level.

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